Sweetness

Directed by Emma Higgins, Sweetness follows a teenager (Kate Hallett’s Rylee) as she abducts her favorite musician (Herman Tømmeraas’ Payton) in an effort at helping him kick drugs. It’s compelling subject matter that is, for the most part, employed to woefully lackluster effect by Higgins, as the filmmaker, armed with her own screenplay, offers up a low-rent and pervasively uninvolving thriller that contains few elements designed to capture and sustain the viewer’s interest – with the arms-length atmosphere perpetuated by an often egregiously deliberate pace and Hallett’s mostly underwhelming work as the far-from-likeable central character. (Tømmeraas doesn’t fare much better, either.) And while the picture does take a few appreciatively (and unexpectedly) dark turns within its second half, Sweetness, which also suffers from a seriously grating score, ultimately comes off as a momentum-free disaster that feels much, much longer than its 93 minutes.

* out of ****